


Altered Reality

by NCISVU



Category: NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canonical Character Death, M/M, Slash, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-29
Updated: 2013-05-03
Packaged: 2017-12-09 22:11:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/778549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NCISVU/pseuds/NCISVU
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The director’s dead and the team’s been scattered across the globe but there’s a threat right in their own backyard. Will they figure it out before it’s too late?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Six Degrees of Separation

**Author's Note:**

> This story begins at the end of Judgment Day but pretty much ignores everything that happened after that. OOC warning just to be safe. Written for the fall from grace prompt for the hc_bingo April amnesty challenge.
> 
> WARNING: ONE OF THE MAIN NCIS CHARACTERS WILL END UP BEING A BAD GUY (fall from grace)! If you want to know who before reading, skip to the author's note at the end. If not, carry on.

 

 

 

 

Gibbs stood in the director’s office with Tony on one side of him and Ziva and Tim on the other. The group had just returned from Jenny Shepard’s funeral and had immediately been summoned upstairs. They all expected the shit to hit the fan but they knew they’d only done what was necessary to protect the agency and its remaining agents. Surely they wouldn’t be faulted for that.

The man who stood in front of them had been chosen by SECNAV to replace Director Shepard. Leon Vance had tried to break the ice while overseeing the investigation into Jenny’s death but Gibbs’ team didn’t hide the fact that their loyalty was to him first, no matter who was giving orders. Vance expected the pushback and tried not to let it bother him too much. It would take time to establish trust. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time.

Someone in their agency was stealing military secrets and he needed to figure out who it was and what they were doing with them and he needed to figure it out fast. What better way to do that than utilize MCRT’s top team? By spreading them out, he could cover more ground and solve the case faster.

"Officer David, the liaison position with NCIS is being terminated. You're going home,” Vance said. “McGee, I'm moving you across to the cybercrimes unit. You'll be working with Officer Hollsworth starting tomorrow. DiNozzo, you've been reassigned, Agent Afloat on the USS Ronald Reagan. Pack your bags, you fly out tomorrow. Agent Gibbs meet your new team." Leon held out three folders all marked ‘Confidential’. Gibbs stood motionless, speechless, staring at Leon. “Might as well accept it, Gibbs, your old team is gone.”

 _Gone_ , the word echoed in Gibbs’ head, _gone, gone_ … His mind took him back to the desert in Kuwait, standing in front of his CO. _They’re gone, Gunny. I’m sorry, Shannon and Kelly are both gone… gone…_

Tony’s hand on his shoulder brought Gibbs back to the present. He took the folders and filed out with his team. Few words were exchanged as the solemn group gathered their belongings and headed for the elevator. They were all in shock. Losing Jenny was bad enough but losing each other was unthinkable.

 

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

As soon as Gibbs got home, he headed upstairs to change out of his suit. He replaced it with a worn but very comfortable pair of blue jeans and a gray short sleeve t-shirt. He slid his feet into his work boots and tied them before heading down to the basement. The world around him was chaos. He was used to that but now his job was chaos. The one thing he could always be sure of had given him reason to doubt.

Jenny’s death had been unbelievably difficult but he was handling that. He’d said his goodbyes at the funeral earlier in the day and was prepared to move on. What he was not prepared for was a new director to come in and take the rest of his team from him. What was Vance thinking? What was his reasoning? What the hell was he trying to prove?

 _Your old team is gone, Gibbs._ The words echoed over and over in his head followed by the words of his CO in Kuwait. _They’re gone, Gunny._ _I’m sorry, Shannon and Kelly are both gone._ This was the second time his job had taken his family away from him; first Shannon and Kelly while he’d been overseas and now his team.

The jars of neatly sorted nuts and bolts sitting on Gibbs’ worktable rained down on the floor as his temper got the best of him. The tabletop was cleared in one hasty motion. The basement was not his friend tonight. His refuge, along with his job, had betrayed him.

As Gibbs tried to cope with a heartache that rivaled the loss of his beloved wife and daughter, he pulled out his old typewriter, hoping it had enough left in it for one final letter—his resignation. Never again would his job take his loved ones away from him. Among the hustle and bustle of the squad room at NCIS the following day, there would be one more missing. Gibbs, too, would be gone.

 

 

 

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

Tony had been driving around DC for hours… at least it felt like hours. He was now three hours late for his flight to the Ronald Reagan. Was late the right word to use when he had no intention of going? He’d only stuck around NCIS for so long because of Gibbs but there would be no Gibbs on The Gipper so why endure life as an agent afloat? That may have been childish but Tony was mad and hurt and confused. He needed his family to help him pick up the pieces. There would be no family on the ship, probably no friends either. Cops weren’t exactly the most popular people to be seen hanging around with.

He had another problem though. There were movers at his house, packing up his belongings and taking them to a storage shed. In a little over a week his lease would run out and the apartment would no longer be his. His landlord already had it rented out to another tenant. Apparently there was a waiting list.

“Well isn’t that just dandy?” he asked himself. “What’re you gonna do now, Anthony?” He didn’t have many options. He could stay in a hotel but that would get pricey and with no income he didn’t want to deplete his savings account like that. There was no way in hell he was going to go crawling back to his father. Maybe he could live out of his car.

Or he could always head to a new city and start over again but he was tired of starting over. His friends were in DC: Abby and Tim, Ducky and Jimmy and the one he wouldn’t mind being more than just friends with, Gibbs. He would miss the head slaps and the glares, the way Gibbs’ lip would turn up into the slightest smirk whenever he did something that amused the older man, the long nights at his house watching him shape wood into amazing things… The last thing he wanted to do was leave Gibbs.

Maybe Gibbs would let him stay at his place while he figured some things out. Actually, there wasn’t any maybe about it. Tony knew Gibbs would let him stay there for as long as he needed to. The only thing stopping him was not wanting to disappoint his boss and he knew Gibbs would be disappointed that he’d blown off his orders to report to the USS Ronald Reagan.

More than anything Tony just needed a friend. Abby would freak. Tim and Jimmy would panic. Ducky would lecture him and most likely tell Gibbs which would upset Gibbs because Tony hadn’t come to him first. There was only one viable option, he had to man up.

It seemed his heart had decided where to go before his mind had because he was already turning into Gibbs’ neighborhood. It was almost as if Gibbs’ house was the lone lighthouse in the middle of the dark sea, drawing him in. Gibbs’ house had always been a place of comfort and peace for him. Hopefully this time wouldn’t be any different. He could endure the lecture and maybe, just maybe Gibbs would understand why he hadn’t gone.

Then hopefully they could put this whole thing behind him and he could figure out what to do next and this time he would not be seeking out another law enforcement job. Finding out Danny was dirty had nearly been the last straw but Gibbs had reigned him back in. Being responsible for the death of the director of NCIS was more than he could bear and he knew that no matter what anybody said, he was responsible for Jenny’s death. Had he done his job she’d still be alive—pissed as hell but alive.

He pulled into Gibbs’ driveway and was surprised to find Gibbs’ car there. Gibbs should’ve been at work. He stepped out of the car and rubbed at the nape of his neck as he made his way up the walkway. “Here goes nothing,” he whispered before opening the front door and stepping inside. He kicked his shoes off and went into the living room. Gibbs was sitting on the couch with a beer bottle in his hand and several more lined up on the coffee table.

“Thought you were supposed to be headed out to sea,” Gibbs said.

“Thought you were supposed to be at work,” Tony replied.

“Resigned,” Gibbs stated flatly.

“Guess I did too,” Tony said. Technically he hadn’t resigned, he just hadn’t shown up. “Startin’ a little early, aren’t ya?” he asked nodding towards the empty beer bottles.

Gibbs shrugged and took another long swig. “Started last night. Never stopped.”

“Well, I can’t let you drink alone,” Tony said as he made his way into the kitchen.

“You got some catching up to do.”

 

 

 

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

Vance spent the car ride to the office psyching himself up for his second official day as NCIS’s director. Day one had been just as hard as he’d expected and he knew day two would be no easier. The agents would be studying him, trying to figure out if he was trustworthy and up to the job. He knew his actions would be compared to Shepard’s for awhile but wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing yet.

Gibbs wouldn’t be happy about his new team which would have a ripple effect throughout other parts of the agency but he was prepared to handle that. On top of dealing with everyone else, he also had to get himself organized, find an administrative assistant and accomplish all the normal daily duties of the NCIS director. Yes, it was going to be another long, rough day.

He took the elevator up to the top floor and slipped into his office almost unnoticed. He wanted to get settled before he started addressing issues. As he approached his desk, he saw a plain white envelope with his name scrawled across the front in what he was pretty sure was Gibbs’ handwriting.

“That didn’t take long,” he muttered, thinking it was a letter about the team leader’s disapproval over the way he was doing things.

He slipped a finger under the flap of the envelope, ripped it open and pulled out the short note. His mouth fell open as he read the resignation. That had not been what he was expecting. The short letter was straight to point and offered no explanation, Gibbs was done effectively immediately.

“Son of a bitch,” he cursed. He knew the man would be upset but never guessed he’d be so upset that he’d resign. That was the last thing he wanted. Maybe he should’ve offered some explanation before splitting his team up. He needed to figure out how to rectify the situation, or if it even could be.

 

 

 

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

After an afternoon of drinking, Gibbs and Tony were both feeling better. The hurt of losing Jenny had faded and their family being ripped apart by ‘The Toothpick’ didn’t seem to matter anymore. To Tony’s surprise, Gibbs hadn’t gotten after him for blowing off orders and in return Tony had spared him the ‘You’re a good agent’ speech. They were just two friends drinking their troubles away.

“We should order a pizza,” Tony suggested. “Soak up the beer.”

“Good idea.” Gibbs reached for the phone but it appeared to have multiplied and he couldn’t quite get a hold of it. After a few failed attempts, he turned back to Tony and smiled. “I can’t find the phone.”

Tony looked at the end table and saw just as many phones as Gibbs had and decided it wasn’t worth the effort. “We’ll order later. I gotta hit the head.”

He stumbled out of the living room and from the sounds of it, walked right into bathroom door. After a ‘whoops’ Gibbs could hear him peeing. Apparently drunk Tony was just as unashamed as not drunk Tony because he hadn’t bothered to close the bathroom door. At least it sounded like his aim was good, not that Gibbs would’ve care if it wasn’t. He was too drunk to care about much of anything.

Tony returned and clumsily fell back onto the couch, practically landing on top of Gibbs. His hand brushed against Gibbs’ crotch as he scooted himself over.

“Oh, feels a little tight in there,” he said, patting the front of Gibbs’ pants.

Gibbs pushed his groin into Tony’s hand, enjoying the unexpected contact.

“Ya know, I could help you with this,” Tony offered.

Gibbs slouched down on the couch, undid his pants and freed his cock before putting Tony’s hand on it. Alcohol may have made some guys lose their ability to get an erection but it always gave him one and he was too drunk to turn down Tony’s offer to help him out.

“Wow, you really are drunk, aren’t you?” Tony said with a laugh. “So’m I.”

He pushed Gibbs’ shirt out of the way, wanting more nakedness, and started stroking. Gibbs relaxed into the couch, humming in blissful pleasure.

“You’re good at this,” Gibbs said.

“’ve had some practice,” Tony admitted as he squeezed and tugged, alternating long strokes with short ones and watching what he was doing intently.

Gibbs reached down and tugged on his balls, adding a little bit of pressure to push him to the edge. His body tensed and he started rocking his hips in rhythm with Tony’s strokes. The moans were coming out more and more strained as Tony did his best to stroke faster without messing up and spoiling the mood.

Tony’s eyes grew wide when Gibbs started spurting white and he couldn’t stop himself from reaching out and touching. Gibbs’ hips stilled and his breathing evened out and in no time at all he’d drifted off to sleep. Tony yawned and decided sleep was a good idea. He let his head fall to Gibbs’ shoulder, closed his eyes and let sleep claim him.

 

 

 

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

So many shocking things had happened over the past few days that Abby was pretty sure nothing would ever surprise her again. That all ended when she walked into Gibbs’ living room and saw him sound asleep with his dick hanging out of his pants and Tony propped up on his shoulder. She realized she probably should’ve been embarrassed but she was far too angry for that. First Gibbs had quit and now, judging by all the empty beer bottles, he’d gotten himself drunk and done who knew what with Tony—Tony who should have been on his way to the USS Ronald Reagan.

“Gibbs,” she said sharply.

Gibbs jerked awake, his head throbbing and his stomach protesting. He opened his eyes and found Abby glaring at him.  
“What’re you doin’ here, Abs?” he asked as he covered his exposed cock with his hand.

“Obviously interrupting,” Abby scolded. “What are you two doing? Why isn’t Tony on the Ronald Reagan?”

Gibbs tucked himself away and closed his pants then scratched at his belly where he hadn’t cleaned up the night before. “We don’t need anyone to mother us, Abs.”

“It looks to me like you do,” Abby said picking up a beer bottle. “How long did it take you guys to drink all this?” The coffee table and surrounding floor was covered.

“I dunno,” Gibbs grumbled. “What day is it?”

“That’s not funny, Gibbs.”

“Does it look like I’m laughing?”

Abby huffed as she dropped the beer bottle to the floor with the others. She marched over to Tony and started tapping his cheek to wake him.

“No… stop,” Tony said batting the hand away without opening his eyes. “You know, you owe me a hand job. You could wake me up with that.”

Abby froze and glared over at Gibbs once again. He just shrugged. “Tony!” she snapped.

Tony’s eyes popped open and he found himself staring up at a very angry Goth. “Oh, hey, Abs. Did you come over to play too?”

Abby narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, too angry to respond.

“Sorry,” Tony said. “That was supposed to be a joke.”

“Well it wasn’t funny.”

“What’re you doing here, Abby?” Gibbs repeated, lifting each of the beer bottles in search of another sip. Maybe if he drank some more he could slip away into that blissful numbness again, although he might just end up in the bathroom puking his guts out. It was a risk he was willing to take.

Abby snatched the bottle out of his hand and moved between him and the mess of bottles. “I discovered something hinky. Actually it was more disturbing than hinky. You know how Director Shepard sent me those pictures from Decker’s funeral?”

Gibbs nodded.

“McGee and I were able to identify Natasha or Svetlana or whatever her name is based on the phone call she was making and the timestamp on the picture. I searched her phone records and she received a call from a highly encrypted number two days before Decker died.”

“Encrypted?” Tony asked.

Abby nodded. “I finally cracked it. Officer Ziva David called Svetlana two days before Decker supposedly had a heart attack.”

“Why would Ziva call Svetlana?” Tony asked.

It was Gibbs’ turn to glare at Abby. “Are you sure?”

Abby nodded. “Does this mean what I think it means?”

Gibbs just stared at Abby as he tried to make sense of what she was telling him.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Tony said. “Back the truck up! Are you saying Ziva told Svetlana where to find Director Shepard?”  
“Or told her where to find Decker knowing it’d draw Director Shepard out,” Abby corrected. “Six degrees of separation.”

“No way,” Tony said. “I’m the one that blew the protection detail in California.”

“You followed orders, Tony,” Gibbs said. “Jen didn’t want you two around. Why didn’t she want you two around?” It was a rhetorical question and left Gibbs wondering if there could be any truth to the possibility that Ziva had set up a hit on the director. Did Jenny not trust them? He trusted Tony implicitly. He trusted Tony more than any other member on his team but that didn’t mean Jenny did. Of course, when he’d run off to Mexico, Jenny had chosen Tony for the La Grenouille undercover assignment so she had to at least have a little faith in him. He knew Jenny trusted Ziva. Jenny trusted Ziva more than he trusted Ziva. Ziva had saved her life in Cairo.

He thought about that for a moment longer. Ziva had gained his trust by saving his life. That was definitely suspicious. Could it be a con Ziva used to get in people’s good graces? But still, what motivation would Ziva have for killing Jenny? Jenny had created the liaison position in the first place. She was always the first one to have faith in Ziva. It seemed like that would be motivation enough not to kill her. What the hell was going on?

Tony watched as Gibbs tried to work everything out in his mind. There was no way his boss believed Ziva could’ve done such a thing… right? “Boss, you don’t think…”

Gibbs looked from Abby to Tony. “I think I’ve had too much alcohol to figure out what this means right now,” he answered. “Abs, you need to go back to work. Don’t tell anyone about this. Just do what you would normally do. Come back over tonight and we’ll see if we can figure out what’s going on.”

As badly as Abby wanted to grill Gibbs with questions and beg him to tell her there was no way Ziva could be involved in any underhanded plot, she knew better. Gibbs didn’t have the answers yet. “Okay,” she agreed.

 

 

 

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

After a few pills for their throbbing heads and a shower, Gibbs and Tony were both feeling a little more human. Gibbs put a pot of coffee on while Tony made pancakes to try to settle their stomachs. Neither had said much since Abby left but both had a rapidly growing list of questions in their minds.

“Talk to me,” Gibbs said while he waited for the coffee. “Talk it out.”

Tony looked over at his boss and nodded, trying to organize his thoughts. “Alright, I think the first question is why. Why would Ziva want Director Shepard dead? They seemed to be allies. Either they were in on some elaborate scheme together, Jenny wanted out and Ziva couldn’t allow that or Ziva used Jenny’s position to get what she wanted and Jenny was close to figuring it out. That implies either one or both of them were up to something shady but I’m just not buying it. We’ve worked with them for three years. We would’ve known, right?”

“Jen told me Ziva saved her life in Cairo,” Gibbs said, “said she owed her.”

“Okkaaay,” Tony said, drawing out the word, not understanding the connection Gibbs was trying to make.

“Ziva killed Ari, not me. She saved my life.” That was the first red flag for Gibbs, the one thing that was telling him there might be some weight to Abby’s discovery but he still didn’t know if he was being paranoid or if it was a legitimate concern.

“That’s why you trusted her. That’s why you let her in so easily and now you’re wondering if she played you.”  
“You know how I feel about coincidences.”

“How do you feel about the director?”

Gibbs glared at Tony but realized he was still talking about the case and not venturing into their private life. “I trust Jen. I don’t think she was up to anything.”

“But not Ziva?”

“Ziva’s given me reason to doubt,” Gibbs said hesitantly.

Tony moved the two pancakes from the pan to a plate and put it on the table in front of Gibbs. “What do you mean reason to doubt?”

“I’m still not convinced she didn’t kill Dempsey in that elevator. Jenny coulda died then too. Who says Ziva wasn’t involved in the kidnapping plot. What if Ziva killed Dempsey in hopes of lessening our chances of finding Jenny alive? Maybe this wasn’t the first murder plot.”

“I always gave her the benefit of the doubt but in the back of my mind I couldn’t shake the fact that that guy’s aneurism exploded during a fifteen second elevator ride when there were no witnesses.” He was quiet for a moment before turning to look at Gibbs. “That was two years ago. How many times has she tried to kill her since?”

“Slow down. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Gibbs said. “She may’ve done this or maybe not but we need to look at it objectively.”

After putting two pancakes on a plate for himself and turning the stove off, Tony sat down at the table with Gibbs. He was just getting ready to take a bite when a knock at the door interrupted him. Gibbs looked out through the living room window and saw Vance’s SUV parked in front of his house.

“Stay outta sight,” he grumbled.

He didn’t get in any hurry answering the door, knowing Vance was most likely there to chew him out about something. Sure enough, the yelling started as soon as he opened the front door.

“Where the hell is DiNozzo?” Vance asked as he stepped into the house uninvited.

“On his way to The Gipper as far as I know,” Gibbs answered calmly.

“Wrong!” Vance said. “He never showed up and he isn’t answering his phone.”

“He stopped being my responsibility when you split my team up, Leon,” Gibbs said. “I don’t know what you’re doing here.”

“He’s your golden boy. I figured he’d show up at your place and it looks like I was right. His car is in your driveway.”

“He asked me if he could leave it here while he was gone. I said yes.”

“Did you take him to Andrews to catch his hop?”

“No, I’d been drinking. DiNozzo called a cab. Now, if you’ll excuse me my lunch is getting cold.” Gibbs opened the door and stared at Vance, waiting for him to get the hint.

Vance glared at Gibbs for a moment before turning and leaving. He silently cursed himself as he made his way to his car. He hadn’t come over to fight with Gibbs. He’d come over to try to reason with him but after getting a phone call about Tony’s absence, that had all gone out the window. Now he had to wait for Gibbs to calm down and try again later.

Gibbs returned to the small table in the kitchen after Vance left and didn’t look the least bit phased by the visit.  
“I can’t believe you lied to Vance,” Tony said around a mouth full of food.

Gibbs shrugged. “What’s he gonna do about it, fire me?”

Tony laughed in amusement as he continued eating. “Why lie?”

“Trust,” Gibbs answered.

“I hear ya there,” Tony said. “What do we do now, about Ziva?”

“I want proof before we accuse her of anything,” Gibbs said. “Right now all we have is a phone call.”

“How do we get proof? We don’t have access to anything we’d need to snoop around. Jenny was murdered by Svetlana because of some undercover assignment with loose ends. Svetlana’s dead. We sure as hell can’t ask Ziva why she called her and even if we did, it’s not like she’d confess to anything.”

“Ziva wouldn’t have killed Jenny without a reason,” Gibbs said. “Jen had to be onto something. If she was, she woulda left a trail or some piece of evidence for us to find.”

“Well that’s a good idea but someone burned her house down.”

“We’ll start with Decker’s insurance policy.”

“Huh?”

“The files Mike took from the evidence lockup,” Gibbs explained. “I need to get a look at them, see if Jen hid anything in there. Might be a stretch but it’s all we’ve got at this point.”

“That’s where all this started,” Tony said. “Looks like we’re going to Mexico.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ziva.


	2. Reconciliations

“Home, Sir?” Gage Crowder, one of the men assigned to Vance’s protection detail, asked.

“Not yet,” Vance answered. “We’re headed back to Alexandria.”

“Agent Gibbs’ house?”

“Yes.”

Vance had spent the afternoon contemplating how to handle the situation with Gibbs. He knew trust was vital in law enforcement and that the three new agents he’d assigned to Gibbs’ team didn’t exactly inspire trust. He’d screwed up and wasn’t too arrogant to admit that but he also wasn’t going to roll over and let Gibbs run the agency from his desk in the bullpen. They’d have to work on finding a balance. Hopefully Gibbs would be willing to give it a shot.

He tapped his foot impatiently, watching the madness of rush hour from behind the tinted window of his SUV. He was still getting used to having a driver. His position didn’t feel worthy of needing to take those kind of precautions but it wasn’t his call and he’d rocked the boat enough lately. If the government wanted to pay someone to drive him around, so be it.

“We’re here, Sir.”

“Thank you, Gage. I’ll just be a minute.”

“Take as long as you need.”

Vance stepped out of the car and straightened his suit jacket as he walked up to the front door. He knocked and was surprised to the point of being speechless when Tony answered.

“Agent DiNozzo,” he said, quickly recovering.

“Director Vance.” Tony was just as surprised to see Vance as Vance was to see him.

“Is that Abby?” Gibbs called from the second floor.

“Um, nope, not Abby,” Tony replied, not taking his eyes off the director. He stepped aside and invited the man in with a wave of his hand.

Gibbs made it halfway down the stairs before realizing who their visitor was. “Leon.”

“Going somewhere?” Vance asked, looking at the duffel bag in Gibbs’ hand.

Gibbs dropped his bag by the door then led the way into the living room, ignoring Vance’s question. “Something you need, Director?”

“I wanted to explain why I split your team up,” Vance said. Gibbs remained emotionless and almost gave off the appearance of being uninterested but Vance wasn’t going to let that intimidate him. “I needed your help. Someone’s been stealing top secret military information and it’s been traced to our office.”

Gibbs and Tony exchanged questioning glances, both silently wondering if this might be what Ziva was mixed up in.

“What kind of top secret information?” Gibbs asked.

“Information related to the stealth technology our military utilizes,” Vance answered. “Information that could cripple us in the global war on terrorism.”

“What does that have to do with me and my team?” Gibbs asked.

“You guys are the top team. I need your help figuring out who it is. I put three possible suspects with you, hoping your gut might tell you something and I sent your team to strategic locations to help with the investigation.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” Gibbs asked angrily. “You can’t run an investigation on secrets and lies. If you wanted my help, you should’ve asked!”

“Boss, can I see you in the kitchen for a sec?” Tony asked. He agreed with everything Gibbs was saying and wasn’t happy about how Vance had chosen to do things either but getting into a screaming match wasn’t going to help anything. He needed to calm Gibbs down so they could figure out what was going on.

“What?” Gibbs asked more harshly than he intended.

Tony poured a cup of coffee and handed it to Gibbs, giving the anger a moment to work its way out of his system. “I know you’re pissed. I am too but we’re not gonna accomplish anything by yelling.” He peeked out into the living room to make sure Vance hadn’t moved then lowered his voice so only Gibbs could hear. “Do you think Ziva could be involved in this? I don’t know who tipped Vance off but if that same person tipped Jenny off and Ziva thought she was gonna get caught it’d give her motive to want Jenny dead.”

“I don’t know,” Gibbs said. He was still having a difficult time wrapping his head around the idea of Ziva being dirty. “I think it’s time to tell Vance though. Could be a matter of national security. Not sure how much trouble she can get into in Israel but—”

“But we need answers before she’s allowed back over here,” Tony finished. “There was no reason for Ziva to call Svetlana and the fact that she did it from a highly encrypted phone only makes her look more guilty. We have to investigate that. We don’t have a choice.” He wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince himself or Gibbs but either way, it’d be foolish to blow it off because they considered Ziva a friend.

Gibbs nodded in agreement.

“Do you think… should I be worried, you know, since I didn’t report to the USS Ronald Reagan? I’m wondering if I need to duck out the back before Vance gets any wise ideas.”

“I got your six, DiNozzo,” Gibbs said with a trace of a smile. “Come on.”

The two returned to the living room where Vance was waiting.

“Something you guys need to tell me?” Vance asked.

“How sure are you that one of the three you put on my team is the one stealing?” Gibbs asked.

“I’m not,” Vance answered. “I narrowed it down by process of elimination and some educated guesses but I’m new here, Gibbs. I know very few people working out of this office.”

“Ziva called Svetlana shortly before Decker was found dead,” Gibbs said. “Decker, Jen and I worked undercover ops in Europe. Svetlana was Jen’s loose end. I killed her lover. She’s probably been looking for revenge ever since.”

“And you think Officer David told her where to find you?” Vance asked.

“We can’t think of any other reason Ziva would call her,” Tony replied.

“If Ziva is the one stealing secrets and Jen was onto her, Ziva coulda had her killed to maintain her cover,” Gibbs said. “DiNozzo and I are on our way to Mexico to get a look at Decker’s insurance policy and talk to Mike Franks. Maybe she left a clue somewhere.” He held up his finger and pulled out his phone. After hitting one of his speed dials, he put it to his ear and waited. “Stop circling the block and get in here, Abby.”

Vance cocked his head in confusion while Tony just smiled. Gibbs’ back may have been to the window but he’d seen Abby’s car go by four times.

“Did you plan on telling me about your concerns?” Vance asked after Gibbs had hung up the phone.

“I’d planned on waiting until I had something concrete,” Gibbs said. “You ripped my team apart on your first day as director. There was no way I was gonna trust you with a suspicion.”

“I apologize for that, Gibbs. I could’ve handled that situation better.” He took full responsibility for the chaos that ensued as a result of it. There was a difference between following orders and being able to trust your superiors enough to follow their orders. His job title didn’t earn him that trust instantly. “There will be an adjustment period for all of us. I know I run things differently than Shepard. You and I are going to have to figure out how to work together, if you’re willing to give it a shot. Can I rip up your resignation?”

“DiNozzo stays with me,” Gibbs said. That was non-negotiable.

“I can arrange that,” Vance said.

“And McGee,” Gibbs said.

“I actually moved McGee to the cybercrimes unit to work on this case,” Vance said. “He’s got a team working on tracking our hacker.”

“You shoulda just asked me, Leon,” Gibbs repeated, much calmer than the first time.

“I made a call, it was the wrong one,” Vance said, “but in all fairness, if I had and Officer David is part of this, who knows what she would’ve done.”

“Hi guys,” Abby said meekly.

“Come on in, Abs,” Gibbs said.

“I didn’t know if I should—or not—or I just…”

Gibbs patted the cushion next to him to stop her awkward stumbling. “He knows,” he said nodding towards Vance.

Abby widened her eyes in surprise but didn’t say anything.

“DiNozzo and I are headed to Mexico to chase down a lead,” Gibbs continued. “You and McGee are gonna work from here.”

“Work on what?” Abby asked.

“Agent McGee has a team tracking down a hacker who’s been stealing military secrets,” Vance said. “Since we have a suspect, why don’t you go through Officer David’s computer and see if you can find anything.”

“I can do that,” Abby said.

“I don’t want anyone discussing this case with anybody outside our core group,” Vance said. “Gibbs, DiNozzo, that includes communications on unsecure lines.”

“Understood,” Gibbs answered.

“If you guys don’t need anything from me, I’m going to head out. Gibbs, DiNozzo, have a safe flight. Miss Sciuto, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Leon.”

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

“Red eye flights are the worst,” Tony grumbled trying to get comfortable in the cramped confines of his small seat.

“You can use my shoulder as a pillow if you want,” Gibbs offered.

Tony looked over at the man, head back, eyes closed, the picture of peace despite everything they’d learned earlier that day. He smiled and took a moment to appreciate the sight. Gibbs rarely looked that calm. “Whatcha thinkin’ about?” he asked.

“Stuff,” Gibbs answered.

Tony was thinking about stuff too. He couldn’t get his mind off the hand job he’d given Gibbs the previous night, trying to memorize every detail he recalled in his drunken state and analyze what it might mean for their relationship in the future. “Do you have any regrets about last night? Or do you even remember what happened?”

A smile crossed Gibbs’ face but he didn’t open his eyes. “I woke up with my dick hanging out and an itchy belly,” he said quietly. “I remember.”

“Regrets?”

“Yeah.” He didn’t have to open his eyes to see Tony’s deflated look. “I regret not being sober. It’d be nice to remember how your hand felt on me, the way your fingers moved over my shaft, the way you teased my slit, the way you squeezed and tugged and twisted…” He let his voice trail off as he replayed the scene in his mind. His pants were getting uncomfortably tight and he was guessing Tony’s were too.

Tony leaned close enough he could whisper in Gibbs’ ear. “I could show you again.” His hand found Gibbs’ thigh and his long fingers inched closer and closer until Gibbs grabbed onto his hand and stopped him.

“Not here,” he said softly. He brought Tony’s hand to his lips and kissed it before putting it back in Tony’s lap and returning to his calm, peaceful state. “You should try to get some sleep.”

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

Gibbs and Tony didn’t arrive at Mike’s beach house until late in the afternoon. Some complications with their ride down the coast made the trip a little longer than expected but they had no choice other than to rely on the locals to get them to where they needed to be. There were no taxis or rental cars and it was too far to walk. When the car they were traveling in ran out of gas, they paid the man for his troubles and walked the rest of the way.

Mike’s head popped up from behind his truck when he heard someone approaching and grinned at his visitors. “Probie, what an unexpected surprise. You coulda called.”

“Coulda,” Gibbs agreed.

“DiNozzio,” Mike teased.

“Why does everyone insist on making fun of my last name?” Tony asked dramatically. “I might have to change it.”

“You’re not changing your last name, DiNozzo,” Gibbs said.

“To what do I owe this visit?” Mike asked.

“Decker’s insurance policy,” Gibbs answered. “We need to look at it.”

“You already know what’s in there,” Mike said.

“We’re looking for something that doesn’t belong,” Gibbs replied, “something Jen mighta slipped in for us to find in case anything happened to her.”

Mike studied his protégé for a moment. “Something you’re not telling me?”

“Uh-huh.”

There was a short silence before Mike waved his hand towards his little beach shack. “It’s in the gun safe. You remember the code?”

“Yep. Thanks, Mike.”

“Must be pretty important for you to make the trip,” Mike pointed out, still fishing for information.

“It is,” Gibbs answered.

Gibbs and Tony spent the next four hours going over everything in the box, examining each piece of paper forwards, backwards and upside down but weren’t coming up with anything. They traded stacks and Gibbs went over the files Tony had already looked through to see if he missed anything while Tony did the same to Gibbs’ files.

“Nothin’?” Tony asked when he’d reached the end of his stack.

“Nothin’,” Gibbs confirmed.

“Looks like this trip was just a gigantic waste of our time,” Tony complained.

A loud crash on the porch followed by a curse reminded them of Mike’s presence. Gibbs looked over at Tony and smiled. “Maybe not,” he said.

The two headed outside and sat on the porch with Mike while he fired up the grill. Gibbs popped the tops off a couple bottles of beer and passed them out as they watched the sun drop farther and farther out of sight.

“Was Jen acting weird before she died?” Gibbs asked.

“Why don’t you just tell me what this is about, Probie,” Mike said. “Then maybe I can give you some straightforward answers instead of trying to guess what might be important.”

“Just tryin’ to figure out if Jen’s death was part of a larger plot,” Gibbs answered.

“Jenny died protecting you,” Mike said. “We know who killed her and why.”

“Someone may have tipped Svetlana off,” Gibbs said, “helped her find Jenny.”

“Ahh, and you’re wondering if Jenny left any evidence to support that claim,” Mike said.

Tony took mental notes as Gibbs gave Mike just enough information to get what they needed without comprising their investigation. Tony was always watching and learning and improving his techniques. Gibbs had taught him more in the short time they’d been working together than Tony had learned in college and six years on other police forces combined.

“Didn’t know Jenny very well so weird is relative but nothing appeared to be off,” Mike said. “If she left you any clues about her death it probably woulda been at the diner. By the time we got there, we both knew there was a chance we might not make it out alive.”

“What’d you two talk about?”

“She talked about her regrets, her illness, we talked about tea, my bladder, you, my Harley, all pointless stuff that won’t help you.”

“Did she give you anything?”

Mike laughed. “Besides a hard time?”

Gibbs turned and looked at Tony. “Looks like we’re headed to California.”

“Fine by me!” Tony said happily. “Unlike me and Arizona, me and California get along just fine.”


	3. From the Grave

I wanna stop by OSP before we head out to the desert,” Gibbs said. “We need to check in with Vance and hopefully Abby and McGee found something.”

“Where is OSP?” Tony asked as he rolled the passenger side window down. Unlike DC, LA was warm and sunny and beautiful and he was going to enjoy every second of it.

“It’s a secret,” Gibbs said. “I should blindfold you.”

“I didn’t know you were into that,” Tony replied with lust filled eyes.

“There’s a time and a place for everything.”

“Boss,” Tony’s tone went from playful to serious, “are we gonna explore what happened the other night?”

Gibbs pretended to concentrate on driving for a moment. He should’ve known that question was coming. “Yeah,” he answered. “We need to focus on this investigation right now but after that, yeah.”

“In that case let’s get investigating!” Tony said.

Gibbs felt guilty seeing Tony so excited when he kept trying to put it off. Tony tried to talk to him on the plane and he told him to go to sleep. Now Tony was trying to talk to him in the car and he was putting the investigation first. Sure, it was difficult to think about a budding romance and chase clues across the country at the same time but there was no reason he couldn’t spend time during the short drive talking about what was happening between them. What was he afraid of? He actually knew exactly what he was afraid of. He was afraid of failure, of losing Tony, of hurting Tony… there was a lot to be afraid of. What was he thinking? This could end up being the biggest mistake he’d ever made.

They arrived at a nondescript building in LA and headed inside. It was much quieter than NCIS headquarters ever was. Gibbs peeked around one of the partition walls and found Hetty sitting at her desk, drinking tea.

“Special Agent Gibbs,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

“Hetty,” Gibbs greeted with a smile. “This is my partner, Special Agent—”

“Anthony DiNozzo Jr.,” Hetty finished for him. “Welcome.”

“Tony,” Tony corrected with a smile. “Nice place you’ve got here.”

“Were you interested in transferring?” Hetty asked.

“No,” Gibbs answered for Tony.

“Come, sit down,” Hetty said. “Can I get you some tea?”

“No thank you.”

“What brings you to the west coast?”

“Not sure how much we’re at liberty to tell you,” Gibbs replied. “We were hoping we could call Vance. We need a secure connection and a little privacy.”

“You’re in luck,” Hetty said. “I was just getting ready to call him myself. Give me a moment with him then I’ll leave you two to take care of your top secret business.”

They headed up to Ops, had Eric connect them to Vance then asked for the room. Gibbs and Tony waited patiently while Vance and Hetty discussed the outcome of a case the Los Angeles office had just closed. From the sounds of it, it had been a messy one. Once that conversation was over, Hetty excused herself but Vance invited her to stay and she obliged.

“Did you two find anything in Mexico?” Vance asked.

“No,” Gibbs answered. “There was nothing in Decker’s insurance policy and Mike didn’t know anything. He suggested we look around the diner. Apparently at that point the reality of possibly not making it out alive set in. If Jen knew there was a chance she was gonna die, she mighta left something behind. She knew I’d investigate, knew I wouldn’t leave any stone unturned.”

“Did Abby or McGee find anything?” Tony asked.

“Agent McGee’s still working on encryptions. Miss Sciuto found some emails on David’s computer sent to a Michael Rivkin. He’s Mossad but the emails are in Hebrew. We’re working on getting them translated. I want Agents Callen and Hanna to go to the diner with you two, if that’s alright with you Henrietta.”

“We’ll be fine, Director,” Gibbs insisted.

“Agent Callen and Agent Hanna will be able to look at this objectively,” Vance replied. “You two are too close to this, especially you, Gibbs. Technically I shouldn’t even be letting you investigate but I think that closeness is an asset in this case. That being said, I still want Callen and Hanna going with you. Are you okay with that, Henrietta?”

“Forgive me, Director, but I’m not really sure what it is you want me to agree to,” Hetty said.

Vance explained the situation to Hetty, including their suspicions and the obvious sensitivity of the matter. Hetty agreed to loan them Callen and Sam for as long as necessary along with anything else they needed. Callen and Sam were briefed then they loaded up their gear and headed out.

The drive to the diner passed with small talk, playful threats, competitions about which team was superior and a very quiet Gibbs. After trying unsuccessfully to get a rise out of him, Tony reached over and rested his hand on Gibbs’ forearm.

“You okay?” he mouthed when Gibbs looked at him.

Gibbs nodded and patted Tony’s hand. The truth was everything was starting to sink in. He and Tony were investigating Ziva, a woman they’d opened their hearts to, a woman they’d accepted into their family and there was a very distinct possibility she’d had Jenny killed in an effort to cover up something far more sinister.

Why hadn’t he seen it sooner? Why hadn’t he caught on? He could’ve prevented any of this from happening. He should’ve known something wasn’t right the moment Jenny told him she owed Ziva for saving her life. He should’ve made the connection to Ziva saving his life. That was how she’d gotten into his good graces. That was the only reason he hadn’t refused to take her in when she’d showed up at NCIS weeks later.

“Boss? Boss… boss?”

“Hmm?”

“You still with us? I called your name several times.”

“Yeah, just thinkin’ and sleepin’.”

Tony shot him a disbelieving look but decided to let it go since Sam and Callen were there. “We’re here,” he said.

They piled out of Sam’s Challenger and headed into the diner. It looked a lot like it had the last time Gibbs and Tony had been there except the bloodstains had been cleaned up and there was no tape on the floor marking where bodies had been. Sam and Callen started on one side and Gibbs and Tony on the other, meticulously going over every inch, every knickknack, every loose floorboard or imperfection in the wall, every shelf, table and chair for any clue Jenny could’ve left for them to find.

It was a long and tedious process but it paid off when Gibbs came across a memory stick wedged between one of the tables and the wall. The find itself was unremarkable but there was no computer anywhere in the building, telling them it most likely didn’t belong there. It could’ve been Decker’s but he probably would’ve kept it in a better hiding place. It had the potential to be a promising lead.

The rest of their search turned up nothing of interest and they headed back to the city in the dark. Under Hetty’s guidance, the decision was made for Gibbs and Tony to stay in LA for the time being which didn’t upset the travel weary partners in the least. They viewed the contents of the memory stick and discovered it was, in fact, Jenny’s and appeared to be a journal of sorts.

Hetty sent the agents home for the night and reluctantly agreed to loan Gibbs and Tony a laptop if they promised to get some rest and not spend all night working the case. They shook on it while Sam and Callen stood back and suppressed laughs.

“What do you want for dinner?” Tony asked as he drove them to the nearby motel Hetty had already reserved a room for them in.

“Don’t care,” Gibbs answered. “Something on the way or something that can be delivered.”

“There’s a really good local pizza shop here,” Tony suggested. “They should deliver to this side of town.”

“That works for me,” Gibbs said.

“You’re gonna stay up all night reading that journal, aren’t you?” Tony asked.

Gibbs answered him with a look. It wouldn’t be the first time he stayed up all night and it wouldn’t be the last but he couldn’t sleep with a case like that hanging over his head.

“If you’re nice to me, I won’t tell on you,” Tony teased as he parked in front of the motel. “We’re in room 21. If you wanna go on up I’ll grab the key and call for a pizza.”

The room wasn’t bad for a motel. It was clean and nicely decorated and there was more than enough space for the two of them. Tony dropped his bag on one bed and Gibbs dropped his on the other. After they both hit the head, Tony flopped down on the bed next to Gibbs and turned on the laptop. He considered asking if Gibbs wanted help going through the journal but that seemed kind of weird considering it belonged to Gibbs’ former lover. He knew the man would ask if he wanted help.

“Hopefully the director’s the type who spills her guts in her journal,” Tony said. “It’d be nice to have a clue or at least confirmation that there’s something hinky going on and this isn’t some wild goose chase.”

“There’s something going on,” Gibbs said. He figured Tony was having a hard time accepting the possibility too. Working with someone for three years and sharing both your professional and personal life with them only to find out it had been a lie and they’d betrayed you wasn’t an easy thing to come to terms with.

Tony put the computer on Gibbs’ lap with an open document on the screen. “All you have to do is scroll and read. I made a copy of the original in case there’s a freak accident or anything. You know, select all, delete, copy, cut, paste, computer malfunction, crash…” His rambling was stopped by a glare from Gibbs. “Okay, so I’m no computer nerd but I know enough about ‘em to know it’d be stupid not to have a backup copy. If this computer gets any bright ideas, we have the original on the memory stick.”

“Thank you.”

“Sure thing, Boss,” Tony said as someone knocked on the door. “Pizza’s here!”

Tony tipped the delivery boy then returned to his spot next to Gibbs and opened the box on the bed between them. He flipped the TV on for entertainment while Gibbs started reading.

 

 

> _5.2.2006  
>  The weirdest thing happened today. I was kidnapped by drug dealers and used as a bartering chip for them to get their drugs and brother back but I don’t think that was the only reason I was kidnapped. I overheard something I probably wasn’t meant to hear, something about Brian screwing up and getting caught and Ziva not being happy about that. How do they know Ziva?_
> 
> _I think the plan was always to kidnap and kill me but NCIS catching Brian changed that. Was I not supposed to be found? Were the kidnappers’ priorities split—one of them remaining loyal to a plot to take me out and the other loyal to his brother?_
> 
> _Jethro killed the only living kidnapper so he won’t be giving any answers. His brother died in Ziva’s custody so he can’t be questioned either. I guess I’ll never know. A confrontation with Ziva would only lead to a denial and would ruin our friendship and, more importantly, NCIS’s working relationship with Mossad and possibly even cripple the US’s alliance with Israel. A hunch isn’t worth all that. Maybe I’m just feeding off of Jethro’s paranoia. He’s still not convinced Ziva didn’t kill the suspect. Whatever. It probably wasn’t even Ziva’s name I heard._

 

Gibbs had never felt right about that case but with no evidence he’d been forced to drop it. Looking back, he was glad he hadn’t given in to Ziva’s demands to let her work the case. The might not have ever found Jenny if he had.

He skimmed the next several entries: devastation about him being blown up, anger and confusion over him quitting, pride at how well Tony was keeping everything together. An entry dated midsummer caught his attention.

 

 

> _7.18.2006  
>  Eli David called today. It was wonderful to hear from him. Having Ziva here has definitely strengthened relations between our agencies which really is invaluable when fighting a war on terror. Eli agrees wholeheartedly and doesn’t want anything to happen to screw it up… which was the reason for his call. He has photographic evidence that Tony and Ziva are in an intimate relationship…_

 

“You slept with Ziva?!” Gibbs asked angrily.

Tony coughed up his mouthful of Pepsi all over his shirt. “What makes you think that?” he choked out.

Gibbs just stared at him and Tony knew he was busted.

“It was after you went to Mexico,” he said. “All of a sudden I had all this extra work to do, I had to deal with you being gone, I was trying to hold everybody else together. I needed a release but I didn’t have time to go looking for anybody. Ziva was convenient and easy.”

Gibbs grabbed Tony by the front of his Pepsi soaked shirt and pulled him so they were face to face. “Never again,” he ground out.

“Never again,” Tony agreed, obviously intimidated.

“If you get this bed all sticky I’m gonna be pissed,” Gibbs said as he released Tony.

Tony glanced nervously over at Gibbs but the man seemed to be over his sudden outburst. “Did the director really write about me and Ziva sleeping together?” he asked as he pulled his shirt off. “How did she even know? We didn’t advertise it and it didn’t go on very long. Ziva really didn’t do it for me.”

“It sounds like Eli was having his daughter spied on,” Gibbs replied. He looked over at Tony and vocalized what they were both thinking. “Why?”

“Either he’s an overprotective parent or he sent Ziva over here to do his dirty work or maybe he had some reason to believe Ziva was shady and he wanted to keep an eye on her.”

“Could be anything,” Gibbs grumbled.

“Gibbs?”

“Huh?”

“I’m really sorry about Ziva. If it makes you feel any better, I regret every second of it and not just because you found out.”

“What’ll make me feel better is never mentioning it again.”

“Got it. Do you mind if I eat the last piece of pizza?”

Gibbs looked down at the open pizza box. “Let’s split it,” he said.

“How?” Tony asked. “We don’t have a kni-i-i…” His sentence trailed off as he watched Gibbs shove almost half of the piece into his mouth at one time. Tony licked his lips, imagining something else going into Gibbs’ mouth and sliding down his throat.

“Here ya go,” Gibbs said, holding out the rest of the piece for Tony. He smiled when he realized Tony was in a daze. The pizza eating stunt had had the desired effect. He smacked the back of Tony’s head to bring him out of it then waved the pizza in front of his face.

“Sorry,” Tony said.

Gibbs smiled as he went back to the journal.

 

 

> _6.4.2007  
>  I had an impossible time sleeping last night so I went to the office early today. When I arrived at 4:00, I found Ziva coming out of Cynthia’s office. She said she was checking to see if I was in yet but when I asked her what she needed she just stumbled over her words before excusing herself._
> 
> _I think she’d been in my office. The door was unlocked, my desk chair was warm like somebody had been sitting in it and the fan in my computer tower was running like it had just been shut down. Once again, I only have my suspicions and don’t want to jeopardize relations with Mossad without irrefutable evidence. I’m probably making a mountain out of a molehill. Ziva wouldn’t betray me._
> 
>  
> 
> _8.19.2007  
>  My damn laptop’s acting screwy again. I swear the thing has a mind of its own. I was checking my email tonight and the cursor started moving all by itself, opening and closing emails. I wasn’t even touching the mouse pad. Then it stopped out of the blue. WTF?_

 

“What’s WTF?” Gibbs asked. “Is it an acronym or abbreviation for something?”

“Uh, the only one I know is when you’re texting or chatting with someone online it’s short for what the fuck.”

“Makes sense,” Gibbs said. “What do you make of this?” He pointed at the entry he’d just read and Tony read it over his shoulder.

“I’m no McGee but it sounds to me like she was hacked,” Tony said. “A couple months ago my laptop didn’t wanna connect to my WIFI—uh, my internet, so I called tech support and they asked for my permission to open a port into my computer or something. I gave it to them and all of a sudden they were opening windows and programs and stuff and I wasn’t even touching the keyboard. It was kinda creepy.”

“Have you ever heard of a computer doing something like that on its own?”

“No. Computers are smart but they need a human to tell them what to do.”

“How close would you have to be to hack into somebody’s computer like that?”

“I’m not really sure but I don’t think distance matters. Tech support was on the other side of town from me and they didn’t have any trouble getting into my computer,” Tony said. “Is there anything in there that points to Ziva?”

“No solid proof but Jen was suspicious. She caught Ziva coming out of Cynthia’s office at 0400 last year, thinks she was in her office. She thinks she overheard one of her kidnappers mention Ziva’s name during the Dempsey case.”

“Maybe there’ll be something concrete in one of the later entries.”

Gibbs continued reading while Tony turned back to his movie. He smiled when he came to the entry about her jealousy over Colonel Mann. There was really nothing for Jenny to worry about. The colonel had been a fun fling but nothing more than that. He frowned when he came across the entry about her regrets. Apparently walking out on him in Paris was at the top of her list. He couldn’t help but feel bad about that. He’d been devastated when he woke up to a Dear John and no Jenny but he’d gotten over it. It appeared Jenny hadn’t been able to let it go. They’d flirted and teased, tempted and tested each other but both knew there was no way they could be together again.

He continued reading and skimming until he got to an entry dated February 28, 2008.

 

 

> _Maybe this job is making me paranoid or maybe I’m paranoid because I’m the one that created the liaison position and invited Ziva into the agency. If this backfires it’s all on me. I’m responsible._
> 
> _Yesterday I caught Ziva in a secluded corner of the squad room talking quietly on her phone. As I got closer she switched from speaking English to Hebrew. Something about her demeanor and the way she looked at me as I passed by her wasn’t right. Am I paranoid? Why am I so suspicious of the woman I traveled the Middle East with? I never questioned her loyalty then. What if she was just having a private conversation with a relative?_
> 
> _Regardless of what she may or may not be up to, my loyalty is to this agency. Jethro taught me to trust my gut and my gut tells me that something hinky is going on. Hinky. I’ve been hanging out with Abby too much._
> 
> _It’s time to keep a closer eye on Ziva._

 

“Jen started investigating Ziva three months before she died,” Gibbs said. When he didn’t get a response, he glanced over at Tony and realized he was asleep, bare chest and bare feet, wearing only a pair of jeans and still clutching the TV remote in one hand.

Gibbs eased the remote out of Tony’s hand and turned the TV off then watched Tony for a moment to make sure he wasn’t going to wake up. Tony rolled over and wrapped his arm around Gibbs’ leg, buried his face in his boss’s thigh and settled back into a peaceful sleep.

“Good night, Tony,” Gibbs said before turning back to the computer.

Gibbs continued reading about Ziva’s suspicious weekend trips to Israel and a visitor that Jenny was less than thrilled about—Michael Rivkin. Jenny had met Michael when she was in the Middle East and hadn’t liked him from the start. According to her journal the man made her feel uneasy. Too much booze combined with the man’s arrogance and the way he leered at her caused Jenny to keep her distance.

Gibbs already didn’t like the guy. He wished he could go back in time and protect Jenny from him then he smiled when he heard Jenny’s voice in his head calling him a chauvinist. They’d had that argument more than once.

He skimmed a few more entries and came across something he hadn’t expected… a letter, addressed to him. 

 

> _Dear Jethro,  
>  I’ve started this letter multiple times and never seem to get anywhere with it. Hopefully this time will be different._
> 
> _First off, I know you don’t believe in apologies but I need to say I’m sorry. I’m sorry for choosing my job over you. I made it to the top only to realize it didn’t fulfill me. It wasn’t what I needed. My bed was lonely and my house was empty. I was wrong. Even worse, I know my decision affected you and I’m sorry.  
>  There’s something else I need to tell you… to ask you and it’s very important but please, Jethro, please think about it before you answer. Please?_
> 
> _I don’t really know how to tell you so I’m just going to come out and say it. I’m sick, dying actually. Ducky says it’s going to be fast and ugly. It’s a neurological disorder that I don’t even really understand. Apparently I’m going to lose control of my body which is scary. When that happens, will you help me end it, Jethro? I don’t want to live like that. I’d rather die in peace. I know it’s a lot to ask._
> 
> _Damn it. Ducky said this would be easier to say to your face if I wrote it out first but I’m having an impossible time just writing it. And now I’m talking to myself or actually writing to myself…_
> 
> _What am I doing? …besides crying_

Gibbs read the letter several times until a single tear slid down his cheek. Jen was alone and scared. She died alone and probably scared. He was alone too. He looked down at Tony and realized his agent was also alone. They were all alone… McGee, Abby, Ducky, Jimmy.

“I’m sorry too, Jen,” he whispered.

He rested his hand on Tony’s shoulder and decided he needed to make more of an effort with him. It was worth the risk. Sure, several hours of heavy drinking was what had brought them together but so what if that had been what it took for them to have the courage to make a move. It wasn’t easy to be in a homosexual relationship, especially in the cop community but he wouldn’t let Jenny’s death be in vain. She’d learned the hard way that pouring her heart and soul into her work at the expense of everything else only led to loneliness. He wouldn’t let that happen to him. Or to Tony.

Tony woke when he felt the hand on his shoulder. It didn’t take long for him to realize he was hugging Gibbs’ leg. He casually unwrapped his arm and yawned, not really wanting to wake up.

“You ‘wake?” Gibbs asked.

“I dunno,” Tony mumbled. “Time’s it?”

“2300 hours,” Gibbs answered.

“Is there still Pepsi left?”

“Mm-hmm. Someone’s been using me as a pillow so I wouldn’t drink it while they were asleep.”

“You’re onto me,” Tony replied with a sleepy smile. He rested his head against Gibbs’ thigh again and let his eyes slip closed. As much as he wanted the Pepsi, he was too tired and too comfortable to get up and get it.

Gibbs smiled and continued reading, searching for a clue he could grab onto and run with.

 

 

> _5.17.2008  
>  When it rains it pours. I got word today that Decker died. As much as I want to believe he had a heart attack, I don’t think that’s the case. I think the ghost of our past has finally come back to haunt us and if I’m right Jethro and I are next on the list. I’m headed to LA for the funeral and to do a little investigating. If my suspicions are confirmed I’ll try to stop this plot before it goes any further._
> 
> _On top of that, my investigation into Ziva’s strange behavior turned up something interesting. Cameras were installed in the squad room this past weekend as an extra security measure. I zoomed in on an email Ziva was typing today. It was to Rivkin and written in Hebrew. I used Google translate to read it and as far as I can tell it was information about the military’s stealth technology. I don’t know if it was general info produced by a simple Google search or top secret but it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Where did she get it? Why is she sending it to Rivkin? There may be an innocent explanation for it but innocent or not, it’s time to have a conversation with her._
> 
> _I can’t deal with that right now though. I’ve convinced Jethro to send Ziva along on my protection detail so I can keep an eye on her. That should keep her out of trouble until I get back and can deal with this other mess.  
>  Remind me again why I wanted this job._

 

“Gotcha,” Gibbs said. He was confident he had all the pieces and could put them together. Had Jenny known someone was downloading top secret information about the US military’s stealth technology, she would’ve caught on sooner but there was no point in dwelling on the past. Someone was stealing stealth secrets and three days before Jenny’s death, she’d caught Ziva sending an email about stealth technology. It couldn’t be a coincidence. This was the break they needed.

He closed the lid of the laptop and set it aside then stretched out in bed next to Tony and closed his eyes.


	4. American Soil

Tony woke the next morning tucked tightly in Gibbs’ warm embrace. He vaguely remembered falling asleep next to the man while Gibbs read through the journal but was confused about why Gibbs hadn’t taken the other bed. The laptop was on the nightstand which meant Gibbs hadn’t worked until he passed out. He’d made a conscious decision to sleep in the same bed.

Tony smiled and snuggled in closer, burying his head in the crook of Gibbs’ neck. Their bare chests were pressed together and while there wasn’t anything outright sexual about it, having Gibbs’ bare skin against his own still felt very intimate. The only thing that detracted from the perfection of the morning were his jeans but considering his morning erection was wedged between their bodies, he was glad for the thicker barrier because he was way too comfortable to try to sneak out of bed before Gibbs noticed.

Gibbs’ grip on Tony tightened as he flexed and stretched his muscles. He let out a big yawn then buried his nose in Tony’s hair. “You up?”

“Yeah,” Tony answered, his voice still deep with sleep.

“Sleep good?”

“Better than I have in a long time,” Tony answered.

“Me too,” Gibbs admitted. “I’m gonna guess that’s not your knee poking my thigh.”

“Um, not my knee, Boss,” Tony replied. “Sorry.” To his surprise, Gibbs wasn’t making any effort to pull away.

“’s okay.”

Tony unburied his face from Gibbs’ shoulder and looked up at the man. What was going on? First they’d shared a bed when they didn’t have to and now Gibbs knew he had a boner yet he wasn’t pushing him away. Gibbs may have said he wanted to explore things further but Tony had sensed his hesitation. He assumed his boss had come to his senses and was trying to let him down easy but now Gibbs was sending out totally different signals. Had they slipped into an alternate universe? It felt like a scene out of The Twilight Zone only there was no music playing in the background.

Gibbs smiled slightly as he brought his hand up and caressed Tony’s cheek with his thumb. Tony’s hair was a wild mess and the look on his face didn’t mask his confusion. Gibbs’ expression was much softer, his hair mussed up from sleep but nothing like his partner’s. Gibbs leaned in and slowly closed the distance between them, pressing his lips to Tony’s.

Tony returned the tentative kiss and initiated another one when Gibbs tried to pull back. He pushed his hips out towards Gibbs, putting more pressure on his dick. How could just kissing someone feel that good? As he held their bodies together, he felt something in Gibbs’ jeans that suspiciously resembled a hard-on. He wiggled around, trying to get a better feel without making it obvious.

“Yes, Tony,” Gibbs said softly, “I’m hard too.”

Before things could go any further, Gibbs’ cell phone started ringing.

Gibbs unwrapped himself from Tony and reached for his phone. “It’s Vance,” he said before answering the call. The peaceful expression disappeared almost instantly.

Tony reached out and trailed his hand down Gibbs’ back as he sat up on the edge of the bed. He knew they had a job to do but he didn’t want the intimate moment to end.

“We’ll be right there,” Gibbs said before hanging up and looking back at Tony. “Vance wants us at the LA office right away.”

“And the morning started out so well,” Tony said with a sigh. “What happened?”

“Don’t know,” Gibbs answered. “Let’s go.”

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

“Ziva’s on the run,” Vance said, looking at the small group of agents gathered in the NCIS LA Ops room through a computer monitor.

“Did she get tipped off?” Tony asked.

“Eli David called,” Vance explained. “Apparently Ziva’s been pushing to come back to the states and thought Dad could make that happen for her. I told him we didn’t have an opening. He kept pushing and I lost my temper.”

“So Eli knows,” Gibbs concluded. “How’d he take that?”

“He didn’t believe it at first. The phone call to Svetlana convinced him. Apparently the way Ziva went about finding a hit man and covering her tracks was familiar.”

“How did Officer David find out?” Callen asked.

“Eli got mad, demanded she be brought to him and confronted her,” Vance answered. “She denied it, of course, but shortly after the confrontation she and another Mossad officer, Michael Rivkin, went on the run.”

“Any idea where they’re headed?” Gibbs asked.

“They’re already back in the US,” Vance answered. “They flew into LAX in the middle of the night using aliases.”

“We found surveillance footage of the pair getting off the plane, collecting their bags and leaving the airport but the taxi they boarded was in the camera’s blind spot,” Hetty added. “We have border patrol and the coast guard on high alert in case they try to leave the country again and their names and known aliases have been added to the no fly list. They’re like trapped rats.”

“Have their faces popped up on the news yet?” Callen asked.

“No,” Hetty answered. “We’re keeping this very hush-hush for the time being.”

“I’m sending Agent McGee and Miss Sciuto there to meet up with you guys,” Vance said. “They’ll be searching for our fugitives on surveillance footage and traffic cameras while continuing to investigate the extent of the leak.”

“While they do that, the four of you are on your way to Camp Pendleton,” Hetty said. “The Marines shot down a drone last month that the US had no knowledge of. We don’t know where it came from or who was operating it but it was built using some of the stealth secrets that could’ve been stolen.”

“Can we count on Mossad’s help with this?” Sam asked.

“Yes,” Vance answered. “Eli’s in a sticky position right now, first Ari and now Ziva. He knows he’s being watched and he knows what’ll happen if he does anything even remotely questionable.”

“I’ve never trusted that guy,” Sam said.

“Alright,” Callen said, “we’re outta here.”

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

Callen drove onto the base after all four of them flashed their badges at the gate guards. There were a couple groups of Marines doing PT, one group jogging and the other in the middle of jumping jacks. Kids were heading off to school and soldiers off to work while their spouses hurried to get their errands done so they could have some fun. The base was bustling with activity at that time of morning.

“Bring back memories?” Callen asked, looking at Gibbs in the rearview mirror.

“Yeah,” Gibbs answered. “Hasn’t changed much.” He really didn’t want to think about the last time he’d set foot on the Marine Base but there was no stopping it. It all came rushing back to him as he was once again immersed in military culture.

“Maybe you can give G directions so he doesn’t get us lost,” Sam quipped.

“Since when have I ever gotten us lost?” Callen asked.

“Do you really want me to answer that?”

Callen just smiled.

They made their way to the building the military police were housed in and met up with the investigator Hetty had told them to see. The drone had been taken to Edwards Air Force Base to be analyzed but all the information they needed could be obtained from the investigating officer. They reviewed maps and photographs and went over reports and radar maps. After all questions were asked and information gathered, they left with copies of everything.

One look at Gibbs as they walked back to their car told Tony the man was onto something. “What’s on your mind?” he asked.

“There’s no reason to spy on Pendleton,” Gibbs said. “Why fly the drone over this base? Why not fly it over Fort Knox or Whiteman or Kings Bay, somewhere there’d be something to see?”

Sam stopped walking and smiled at the group.

“What?” Callen asked.

“When I was in SEAL training our instructors took us out to the desert and gave us these little remote control, model planes built with stealth technology along with maps and some portable radar devices,” Sam said. “Our mission was to fly them from Point A to Point B, undetected, while our instructors tried to find them and shoot them down. Stealth isn’t just about the materials the plane’s built out of. It’s flying close to the ground, carefully planning your route to avoid radar towers, a whole slew of things to avoid detection. They didn’t tell us that part.”

“That confirms what I’ve been thinking all along,” Callen said.

“What’s that?” Sam asked, knowing he was going to get a smart aleck response.

“SEALs are weird.”

“It’s a lot more effective than book learning. They were teaching us about stealth technology and testing our troubleshooting skills at the same time. They wanted to see if we could figure it out.”

“And did you?” Callen asked.

“Not soon enough,” Sam answered with a smile.

“It was a test,” Tony concluded. “Whoever built the drone, flew it over Camp Pendleton to see if they’d be detected. They weren’t after secrets or information or anything like that—”

“Yet,” Sam threw in.

“Yet,” Tony agreed. “They just wanted to know if they could get away with it.”

“Let’s go brief the bosses,” Gibbs said.

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

Vance, Hetty and Secretary of the Navy Davenport all came together via secure video feed to review the situation and plan their next steps. The NCIS agents had returned from Camp Pendleton just in time to pick McGee and Abby up from the airport after briefing Vance and Hetty. Hetty had sent them to a nearby safe house where they could set up a command post away from the prying eyes of other agents while she spoke with her colleagues about how to proceed.

“What do we need to do to contain this situation?” SECNAV asked.

“We believe the drone shot down over Camp Pendleton was built using some of the stealth secrets that were stolen,” Vance said. SECNAV hadn’t been available when the team had briefed them after returning from the Marine base.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that it was most likely a test run,” Hetty added, “and obviously they failed.”

“Have we made any progress figuring out who’s stealing our secrets?” SECNAV asked.

“We’ve found evidence pointing to Officer David,” Vance replied.

“Damn it!” SECNAV cursed. “That’s been biting us in the ass ever since that position was created. Do we think Shepard was involved in this mess?”

“There’s nothing indicating that at this point,” Vance answered. “Shepard was suspicious according to a journal that was found but based on that journal and the evidence we’ve gathered so far, as well as her murder, it all points to her innocence.”

“We’ve got Agents Gibbs and DiNozzo teamed up with Agents Callen and Hanna, all investigating the incident at Camp Pendleton and trying to track down Officer David and Officer Rivkin who’s on the run with her,” Hetty said. “I think it would be prudent to have a contingency plan. The crash at Pendleton was a month ago. We don’t know how much progress these people or this group or whomever we’re dealing with has made but it would be foolish not to take the proper precautions.”

“What do you suggest?” SECNAV asked.

“I’ve spoken with one of the radar specialists from Edwards who came out to investigate the downed drone,” Hetty said. “There’s an advanced radar system in the final stages of development that counters stealth technology. It’s highly sensitive and able to detect the radar absorbing materials. It is still being tested but the results are promising so far.”

“I’m assuming there’s a significant cost related to this,” SECNAV asked.

“That’s correct,” Vance answered. “Our recommendation at this point would be to utilize this system at our most secure military bases, at least until this situation is under control. We think the risk outweighs the cost.”

“I agree,” SECNAV said. “Let’s set it up.”

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

“How long is this gonna take, Abby?” Gibbs asked, watching as the computer filtered through surveillance and traffic cameras in the Los Angeles area.

“Gibbs, we’re looking for two people in a city that’s more than five hundred square miles,” Abby replied. “There’s well over four million people here at any given time.”

“It’s the Where’s Waldo game from hell,” Tony said.

“It’s gonna take awhile, Gibbs,” Abby said with a laugh.

“They’re messing with us,” Tim announced, typing furiously on one of the computers.  
Gibbs moved over behind his agent and looked over his shoulder. “How so?”

“There’re plane tickets in Michael Rivkin and Ziva David’s name all over the US,” Tim replied.

“They know we’re looking for them,” Gibbs concluded. “We can’t trust any obvious moves.”

“How’re we gonna check all the airports though?” Tim asked.

“Get a hold of Vance, have him involve the US Marshals,” Gibbs said. “We can have them search for Ziva and Rivkin without compromising the case.”

“Sam and I will head to LAX,” Callen announced. “If they really are getting on a plane, it’s probably here. Rivkin and David don’t know what we look like so we should be okay.”

A knock at the door of the safe house had the entire group immediately on alert. They weren’t expecting any visitors.  
Callen silently made his way over a window and peeked out. “It’s Hetty,” he said. He unlocked the door, removed the chain and let her in.

“Thank you, Mr. Callen,” Hetty said.

“Mm-hmm. What’s up?”

“We just heard from Eli David. Mossad used cell towers to track Rivkin’s prior movements. He frequented a camp not known to Mossad and when they went to check it out they found a group of people building drones like the one we found at Camp Pendleton and running tests. There weren’t a lot of weapons or anti-American propaganda leading us to believe they’re in this for the money.”

“That’s a best case scenario for a worst case situation,” Sam said. “If we’re lucky they’re greedy and keeping the information to themselves so they can use it to build and sell and keeping cashing in. If they sell the information they’ll only get one payday.”

“A spreadsheet of potential customers and orders found at the camp points to them selling products, not information,” Hetty said.

“Thankfully they’re greedy,” Callen said.

“Now all we gotta do is find them,” Tony said.

“DiNozzo and I will circulate a list of supplies they’d need to continue their research,” Gibbs said. “They’re either gonna try to purchase supplies or steal ‘em. With any luck they’ll do all their shopping in one place.”

“G and I are off to the airport,” Sam said.

“Timmy and I are on their electronic trail,” Abby said.

Hetty stepped back and watched with a smile on her face. Her agents were working together like a well oiled machine. If anyone was going stop Ziva and Rivkin, it would be her people.

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

Michael Rivkin dialed number after number on his cell phone as he paced around the abandoned warehouse he was holed up in with Ziva. No one was answering and he was getting more and more concerned. He looked over at Ziva who was messing with the supplies they’d stolen earlier that evening but she didn’t seem to care much about what he was doing.

“No one is answering,” he said. “They must have found our camp.”

“That is not what I am worried about right now,” Ziva grumbled.

“Ziva—”

“We can always put together a new team,” Ziva snapped, “but right now we are still missing a key piece to the puzzle and until we get it, we cannot go into business.” People were expendable in her mind. Both she and Michael were safe and free and that was all that mattered.

Michael rolled his eyes, even though he knew Ziva was right. They needed to figure out what they were doing wrong so they could fix it and start building and selling. They were in it for the money, not to make friends. He watched Ziva work for a moment before he came up with an idea. “What if we try this…”


	5. Whole Again

Gibbs and Tony sat in the interrogation room in the boat shed across from Isaac Montague. Both agents stared silently at the man. Callen and Sam were watching on the TV screen in the adjoining room. Credit card receipts put Montague, an Air Force pilot working out of Groom Lake, and Ziva in the same restaurant at the same time one Saturday every month for the last year. There was no way that was a coincidence. Considering all the top secret work done at the base, much of it revolving around stealth technology, they were either looking at an accomplice or someone who’d let a pretty girl use him to get information.

“Why were you having dinner with this woman once a month?” Tony asked, laying a picture of Ziva on the table in front of Montague.

Montague glanced at the picture and immediately started squirming. “I um… we… she…”

“Spit it out,” Gibbs ordered. He didn’t want to give the man time to create a story. He needed the truth.

“We were kind of dating,” Montague said, “I think.”

“Kind of?” Tony asked. “You think? Have you ever kind of thought you were dating someone, Gibbs?”

“Nope,” Gibbs answered.

“Me neither.”

“Dalia would drive over from California once a month a month and we’d have dinner,” Montague explained. “With our jobs and the distance between us that was all we could really manage. Only, she wouldn’t let me pay for her meal and she never wanted to go home with me for a movie or drinks or anything. It all moved very slow.”

“Dalia?” Gibbs asked.

Montague narrowed his eyes in confusion and took a closer look at the picture. “That’s her name, Dalia,” he said.

So Ziva lied about her name and where she lived. “When’s the last time you saw… Dalia?” Tony asked.

“Three weeks ago. We’re supposed to meet up this weekend but I haven’t been able to get a hold of her. Her phone’s been disconnected.”

“Did you try calling her at work?” Gibbs asked, mainly so he could find out where Ziva had told the man she worked.

“She works on an assembly line at an airplane factory,” Montague replied. “She’d get in trouble if I called her at work. It would hold up the whole assembly line.”

“Did you ever talk about your job?” Tony asked.

“Yeah,” Montague answered reluctantly. “She knew—she somehow figured out I work at Area 51. I didn’t tell her but I couldn’t deny it when she asked.”

“Did she ask questions?” Gibbs asked.

“Of course,” Montague said with a laugh. “It’s Area 51! Everybody has questions.”

“Any questions that didn’t involve alien autopsies?” Tony asked.

“Um, I’m a pilot so she was interested in my job. She asked what kind of planes I flew, where, why, how, when, stuff like that. Seemed innocent enough.”

“You were sworn to secrecy, were you not?” Gibbs asked.

“Yes, Sir.”

“What’d you tell Zi—Dalia?” Tony asked.

“Nothing specific,” Montague answered. “I just told her I flew planes, usually for tests, sometimes at night. She asked a lot of why and how questions but I never went into detail. She works at an airplane factory and I fly planes. I thought it was just a shared interest.”

“Did she ever ask about anything specific?” Gibbs asked. “Any procedures, techniques, technology, anything?”

“No, Sir, just vague whys and hows but we’d only met a handful of times and we talked about other stuff too. What’s going on?”

Gibbs and Tony shared a look. Both of them believed the pilot’s story. It was time to turn Montague over to the CIA to be dealt with and move on.

“If we find out you’re lying to us, we’ll be back and we won’t be this nice,” Tony said.

Montague watched in confusion as the agents stood from their chairs and disappeared from the strangest interrogation room he’d ever seen before. Seriously… a boat shed? He decided he was probably lucky the agents, if they really were agents, didn’t kill him. This was all very weird.

“Ziva used him but it doesn’t sound like she got much out of him,” Callen said as Gibbs and Tony walked into the room. He and Sam had come to the same conclusion as Gibbs and Tony had.

“We agree,” Tony said.

“Again, that’s good for us,” Sam said. “They have the technology but they don’t know how to use it properly.”

“We need to catch up with them before they figure it out,” Gibbs said.

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

“Ziva really did this, didn’t she?” Tony asked. It wasn’t that he couldn’t believe; he just didn’t want to believe it.

“Yeah, she did,” Gibbs replied. There was no doubt in his mind, only hurt and anger.

“I wish we were back at the motel,” Tony said softly, “or at least alone here. I need something to take my mind off this mess.” He and Gibbs were sitting on the deck of the safe house, watching the sunset while Abby and Tim continued their computer searches and Sam and Callen utilized the downtime to shower, shave and put on some fresh clothes.

“What kind of something?” Gibbs asked.

“I dunno. TV maybe or a group activity,” Tony smiled seductively at Gibbs, “us being the group.”

Gibbs stretched his legs out and rested them in Tony’s lap. With a house full of people that was as close as they were going to get to the kind of group activity Tony was wanting.

“This would be a lot more fun if I wasn’t wearing pants,” Tony said as he pulled Gibbs’ socks off.

Gibbs smiled over at him. “There’ll be time for that later.”

Abby stepped out onto the porch and hesitated briefly before seeing everybody’s clothes were on and covering the appropriate body parts. “Nice to see nothing’s hanging out this time,” she snarked before dropping a stack of papers in Gibbs’ lap. “There was a burglary at an airplane factory in Ridgecrest, California. The list of stolen items matches the list of supplies Ziva and Rivkin would need almost item for item.”

“Where is Ridgecrest?” Gibbs asked, immediately returning to work mode.

“About one hundred and fifty miles northwest,” Abby answered. “There’s a lot of vacant land out there. They loaded up the items in a semi and took off. What they most likely didn’t know is someone spray painted graffiti on the top of the trailer. Why someone would tag the top of a trailer, I do not know but McGee and I used satellite imagery to track them to an abandoned farm off 395. I sent the coordinates to Tony, Sam and Callen’s phones and for you, my technologically challenge hero, I have this lovely map with a big, fat X marking their location.”

Gibbs smiled and kissed her cheek as he took the map. “You stay here and keep an eye on ‘em,” he instructed, putting his socks and shoes back on. “We’ll take McGee with us and put an end to this mess.”

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

Callen made it to the predetermined rendezvous point in a time that most likely would’ve qualified him to take part in a NASCAR race. Gibbs was right behind him, only because Callen knew exactly where they were going and Gibbs didn’t. They were less than a mile from the farm and according to Abby, Ziva and Rivkin were still there. It was time to put an end to the situation once and for all.

The agents decided on a more covert approach, knowing their suspects weren’t likely to surrender. Both Mossad operatives were highly trained and very smart. NCIS needed to use the element of surprise in their favor. After one last look at the map and an educated guess about which building on the large, rundown farm their suspects might be in, the group quietly made their way down the road.

They left their cars at the end of the long driveway and started out on foot. Despite sweeping the area and moving cautiously, Gibbs and Sam rattled a tripwire with metal cans attached. The nuts and bolts in the cans clanged, alerting the suspects to their presence. They definitely weren’t dealing with average criminals.

“Shit!” Sam grumbled.

“At least we know we’ve got the right building,” Tony said.

There was movement inside the barn and something suddenly flying out at them.

“Grenade!” Gibbs yelled as he dove away from where the device had landed. The gunfire started immediately and from the sounds of it they’d acquired assault rifles sometime after landing in the US.

“Son of a bitch!” Sam cursed. “NCIS! Surrender!” More gunfire told them there was no way that was going to happen.

“We need to get to that tractor,” Gibbs said pointing at the dilapidated piece of equipment no more than twenty feet away.

Gibbs started firing back at their targets to provide cover while Tony and Tim ran for the tractor. Sam grabbed Callen, who hadn’t moved since the grenade went off, by the back of his bullet proof vest and dragged him along the then provided enough cover fire for Gibbs to make it to safety.

“I’m okay,” Callen groaned, holding his chest. “Hit the vest.”

Sam dug the bullet out just to be sure it hadn’t penetrated. Who knew what kind of ammo their suspects had gotten their hands on? Callen would have a nasty bruise but it was better than the alternative.

Gibbs looked over at Tony just in time to see him swaying back and forth before he fell to the ground. “DiNozzo!” he said hurrying to his agent’s side.

“Think ‘m hiiit…” Tony’s mumbles trailed off as his eyes tried to roll back.

“Ah, ah,” Gibbs said, smacking Tony’s cheek. “Look at me. Look. At. Me. Tony.”

Sam, Callen and McGee fired into the barn while Gibbs peeled Tony’s layers away and found a through and through to his right bicep and some shrapnel embedded in his abdomen, just below the bullet proof vest.

“Let me see, Tony,” Gibbs said when his partner moaned and tried to push his hand away. “We’re gonna need a medivac, Hetty,” he said into his comm. “Have ‘em stage till the scene’s secure.”

The gunfire stopped and an eerie calm settled over the farm.

“How is he?” Callen asked.

“He’ll live,” Gibbs answered. “How’re you?”

“Same.”

“Do you think we got ‘em?” Tim asked.

Before anyone could answer, they saw the top of Rivkin’s head peek out from behind the large, sliding barn door. The agents stayed perfectly still, watching and waiting.

“Do it,” Sam dared under his breath.

As if he could hear Sam, Rivkin took the former SEAL up on his challenge and hurried across the opening towards Ziva. Sam tracked him with his gun and delivered two bullets to his head, dropping him to the ground instantly.

“Rivkin’s down,” Sam reported to his teammates and their bosses who were monitoring the situation from LA and DC.

Ziva looked at her dead boyfriend and knew she only had one move left. She’d worked through every possible scenario since she and Michael had gone on the run. If there was any hope of getting out of her current situation, she was going to have to play the victim.

She put her weapons down, conjured up a few tears then rushed out of the barn. “Gibbs!” she yelled in a panic. “Thank God! Gibbs!”

“Stop!” Sam yelled, following her movements with his gun. “Stop!”

“Stand down,” Gibbs said when he saw Ziva was unarmed.

“Gibbs, thank God you are here! I am so happy to see you!” She threw herself at the man and held on for dear life, forcing more tears to fall. She’d gone from firing at her former teammates to playing the part of the victim seamlessly. “He kidnapped me, made me do things, steal things, build things. I—I tried to get away, tried to contact you but he never left me alone, not even to use the bathroom.”

“I suppose he forced you to shoot at us too?” Gibbs asked as Sam and McGee pulled Ziva off of him and restrained her.

“Yes!” Ziva said desperately. “I had no choice. Don’t you see?”

“No,” Gibbs answered, “no, I don’t see, Ziva. And just so you know for next time, your act is a little over the top.”

“What is this?” Ziva asked as Callen secured the handcuffs around her wrists. “Let me go!”

When Ziva tried to resist, Sam knocked her out without hesitation. He’d dealt with enemy combatants before. He didn’t care if she was a woman and the daughter of Mossad’s director, she was an enemy combatant.

Callen hurried over to the barn to check Rivkin’s status and Gibbs knelt next to Tony again. The NCIS agents were a little beat up but despite the elite training their enemy had received, they’d still made it out on top.

“All clear,” Callen reported. “Rivkin’s dead.”

“Ziva?” Tony asked.

“Unconscious but alive,” Tim said.

“She’ll wake up on a plane headed for Guantanamo Bay, surrounded by a squad of Marines,” Sam said. “Unless you guys want to talk to her before she’s sent off?”

“Wouldn’t do any good,” Gibbs said. “Especially after the show she just put on. Did she really expect me to believe she was the victim in all this?”

“She’s dangerous, smart, manipulative,” Callen replied. “The best thing we can do to protect our country is turn her over to Gitmo. Those guys are pros when it comes to handling people like her.”

“Prisoners secure,” Sam reported back to headquarters, “one dead, one in custody. Send in the medivac chopper.”

“Job well done, team,” Hetty said.

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

Tony had a habit of milking even his most minor injuries for all he could. The two holes in his body, although not serious, weren’t minor either so he was successfully getting Gibbs to pamper him. It had started out small with help eating and getting his shirt off and on. The night they’d spent in the hotel room after Tony was discharged from the hospital, Gibbs had received a request to shave the scruff off Tony’s face and tuck him into bed. Both felt like intimate gestures but strangely enough, neither felt awkward.

Things had gotten even more personal the following morning when Tony had come out of the bathroom with his pants hanging open. Gibbs had looked up from the book he’d been reading to find himself eye level with Tony’s crotch and, of course, there was no underwear in sight. He resisted the urge to stare, to touch, to lick, and carefully slid the zipper up and fastened the button at the top. Thankfully Tony didn’t pull any stunts on the plane ride back to DC.

Thirty six hours after fatally shooting Michael Rivkin and slapping the handcuffs on Ziva’s wrists, they walked through Gibbs’ front door and dropped their bags in the entryway. It had been an exhausting chase, complicated by the fact that they were chasing a friend, a colleague, a trusted partner, but now it was just another case to tuck away in the dark recesses of their minds. It was time to move on.

“It feels like it’s been months since we left,” Tony said, turning the light on so they could see.

Gibbs nodded. Tony was right. It had only been about a week but it felt much, much longer. “You hungry?” he asked.

“Surprisingly, not really,” Tony answered.

Gibbs almost asked if Tony was staying until he remembered Tony’s apartment was gone. The two sat down on the couch, kicked their shoes off and tossed their socks into a corner of the room. It was good to be home and know that no doctors or nurses were going to interrupt them, their phones wouldn’t ring with an urgent message to hurry to a location hours away, no one was going to disturb them. It also scared the shit out of them because now there was nowhere to hide.

They’d done things. Both had initiated, sometimes in a drunken stupor, sometimes in the heat of the moment and sometimes as a solace in the midst of a very unfair and unexpected situation but there was no going back. Neither wanted that anyways. Now came the hard part. Now it was time to be sober in love.

“Remember the last time we were sittin’ on this couch?” Tony asked.

Gibbs looked over at him and smiled. “Vaguely.”

“You could return the favor,” Tony said with that sly grin of his and those lust filled eyes. “My injuries do make it a little harder to… help myself.”

“Is that what you really want?” Gibbs asked.

“It’s a start.”

Gibbs leaned in for a kiss as he brushed his fingers across Tony’s thigh before rubbing and squeezing the front of his pants.

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

Gibbs paused to admire the sight in front of him before pushing deep into Tony’s tight heat. A hand job on the couch had led to a shower to get cleaned up then the two had spent quite a bit of time in bed, exploring and kissing, tasting and petting, studying every whimper, every moan, every twitch and jerk the other made.

Tony whimpered as Gibbs eased inside. The familiar mixture of pleasure and pain all came back to him and he smiled at what was to come. With his hands fisted into the sheets and his face buried in the pillow, he tried to memorize every moment of their first time together.

Gibbs continued pushing in and pulling out slightly, then pushing in a little deeper and pulling out a little more until he was buried completely inside his lover. The noises Tony was making were like a sweet melody he wanted to hear over and over again.

“Relax,” Gibbs coaxed.

“Tryin’,” Tony said. “Want you so bad. Feels so good.” He was almost too excited. His body grew tense as he tried to hold onto that euphoria. He never wanted their first time to end.

Gibbs pushed back the overwhelming need to take what he wanted and rubbed the trembling muscles in Tony’s back, peppering them with kisses while he waited for his lover to calm. Tony closed his eyes and lost himself in the moment. With each deep breath his muscles loosened. He started rocking his hips, slow short strokes around Gibbs’ cock. Gibbs leaned back slightly and watched as Tony’s strokes lengthened and he found his rhythm.

“You’re a natural.”

“What’d you expect from the sex machine?” Tony joked.

When the pace quickened, Gibbs leaned forward again and started moving with Tony. The two bucked against each other, desperation rapidly growing after so much foreplay until Tony finally gave in.

“Harder,” Tony begged, giving up all control to Gibbs. “More. I want you—want you so bad.”

Gibbs was happy to oblige. He pushed harder, deeper, faster. Tony cried out when the frantic strokes tagged his prostate and Gibbs focused on that spot, trying to hit it each time. Tony reached between his legs and pumped his cock. He was so close. Sweat dripped down Gibbs’ face, burning his eyes. Pleading turned to mumbling, muscles tensed and breathing paused as both reached completion together.

“Holy fuck!” Tony shrieked.

“Yeah,” Gibbs agreed. He fell to his side, keeping Tony against him so they could maintain the intimate connection.

“That was incredible.”

Gibbs grinned and held Tony tighter. “It’s a start.”

**NCIS | NCIS | NCIS | NCIS**

**Six Weeks Later…**  
Gibbs sat down at his desk and looked around the bullpen. Tony was already busy, eager to get back to work after finally being deemed fit for duty. McGee came rushing in with only a minute to spare and slid into his chair. Ziva’s desk was conspicuously missing. The void was filled with a fancy single serve brew station that would produce the perfect cup of sludge for Gibbs, cappuccino for Tony and whatever Tim desired on any given day. A new team member might be added somewhere down the road and it might even be a woman but for now things were perfect just like they were.

“Welcome back, Tony,” Tim said with a smile. “It’s good to be whole again.”

“It’s good to be back,” Tony replied.

Gibbs’ phone rang moments later. Tony and Tim watched with eager anticipation, waiting for instructions. Gibbs hung up and looked at his boys.

“Grab your gear,” he said. “Dead Marine in Prince William County. McGee, gas the truck. DiNozzo, get Ducky and Palmer. I’ll meet you out front in five.”

Gibbs watched his agents scurry off in different directions and smiled once no one could see him. Yes. It was good to be whole again. It was a different kind of whole but a better one. He stood, slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed for the elevator.

**The End**


End file.
